I have a 3 speed auto and was thinking of a 700R4 swap to get overdrive, but I am wondering how a GEAR VENDORS would be better?
This question is really about how much horsepower you plan to use. A 700R4 is fine for a 32 Ford (light weight) that is a street only car (no abuse) and a small block motor with no power adders (nitrous or supercharger). Any small block car or truck where the owner just likes to cruise will find a 700 can be reliable — but, the more you change to bigger horsepower, muscle cars that are all steel instead of fiberglass, and some full throttle acceleration the more you need a GEAR VENDORS bolted to a quality 3speed automatic instead. Though you could make a good argument that a lower hp motor needs the close ratios that a GEAR VENDORS provides to make the car feel like a hot rod — the car will be more fun and faster with a Gear Vendors - but it is not needed.
So the Muscle car guy is the GEAR VENDORS customer. The big block era of 1967-72 our most popular years for this same reason — heavy car, big horsepower, and the need to be able to perform. We of course do a ton of 55-66 cars as well (both restorations and performance builds). The 3 speed automatics built in the big block era by the big three are the best transmissions for performance street/strip use. You certainly do not want to take out a 727 or 904 Mopar trans, or a c4 or c6 Ford ,or a TH350 or 400 GM, and put in the lighter duty 700R4 or even a 4l80E. Hot Rodding is making improvements not compromising performance. It may be some fun to change an intake manifold or do other work in the engine bay (where friends can see the new stuff) but when it comes to transmissions you want to do this work exactly once. You want the best. The best performance, the most reliability, a trans package that can handle anything you throw at it and the strongest overdrive on the planet is a GEAR VENDORS. That is why a GEAR VENDORS comes with a 2yr unlimited horsepower warranty (we know you will hurt the main trans before you ever hurt our overdrive) even at the dragstrip. We own records in cars with 2000hp.
I own a 4 speed manual transmission but was thinking of either bolting on a GEAR VENDORS or swapping in a late model 5 or 6 speed. What would be better?
The answer to this question is much like the same question automatic guys have when they have a 3speed auto and are thinking of maybe a late model overdrive automatic swap — so read that question also after you have read the following.
Muncie M20, M21, M22, Borg Warner T-10, Ford Top Loader, and Mopar A833's are the best manual transmission ever made for performance street/strip use and abuse. This is why they are still used in Nascar. As soon as you put a 5th gear in the trans you compromise a lot of strength. So the late model 5 or 6 speed will not handle as much horsepower. The 4 speed muscle car era transmission are also much easy to shift fast (you really cannot powershift a late model five speed) where you feel like you would break the Hurst shifter off in your hand before hurting a quality 4 speed.
The moment you bolt a GEAR VENDORS to your 4 speed you have not only added the strongest overdrive gear but one that can also fix any wide ratio issues with M20 or T10 transmissions for a true six speed. Also all the 4 speed tranny's will get a full throttle clutchless shift you can use at any moment on the street or strip. This means you can drop the clutch in 1st gear and then hit the GEAR VENDORS shift button on your shifter at full throttle and get a new ratio clutchless that will make a big difference in 100ft times and performance. For this reason we supply our 6speed badges with all 4speed kits.
It just makes no sense under any condition to remove a quality 4 speed and replace it with a late model swap. If you have a 3speed manual than yes it would be cheaper maybe to do a 5speed swap than to buy both a 4speed and a GEAR VENDORS. But if you love performance and plan to get on it at all — the GEAR VENDORS is the way to go. 2 year unlimited horsepower warranty that is guaranteed even at the dragstrip. Those 5 speed ads may show a car at the dragstrip but the truth is they will either deny your warranty if you drag race or give you such a short warranty it would not matter. By the way — the GEAR VENDORS is also much easier to install than a swap.
A quality 4 speed manual and GEAR VENDORS planetary overdrive is the strongest manual trans package you can do without going to exotic race only manual transmissions.
Why is a GEAR VENDORS overdrive stronger than a factory overdrive automatic or manual?
GEAR VENDORS is the strongest overdrive you can buy because that is what our company has always intended to build. The automobile manufacturer has a wide group of customers to please. Probably 99% of these customers will never go to a dragstrip, do not like firm shifts from the transmission, and could care less about a 10th off their hundred foot time. GEAR VENDORS shift firm like a shift kit in an automatic and use a common vertex cone clutch that is low in parasitic loss and cannot slip. GEAR VENDORS uses super high quality materials like 300m steel, drop forged annulus, and 18 element roller clutch that are incredibly strong, expensive, and just overbuilt for the typical new car buyer. GEAR VENDORS are also assembled by hand to exacting stacked tolerances that would be impractical to build by the thousands per day — we build only about 3 thousand per year.
So, it is not that we are smarter than the automotive manufacturers, in fact there are no secrets in the transmission industry, everything any of us do is patented and those patents are well laid out for all to see. GEAR VENDORS is just more targeted to the performance/race customer who is willing to pay for a higher level of performance, components and assembly. GEAR VENDORS has also been making planetary overdrives longer than anyone in the automotive industry. We were suppliers to GM for the Twin Turbo Callaway Corvettes. A lighter duty version of our product was used in Ford Diesel Transit vans in the european market for 10 years. Chrysler and GEAR VENDORS have worked on a couple transmission projects that led to engineering still in use today. So when we show how much stronger one of our components are - it is not criticism in any way, it is just that our markets are different.
These are just some of the frequently asked questions
Gear Vendors philosophy is to offer the most advanced, highest quality, auxiliary transmission, with the best customer service available. Price was not then or now a part of the mission statement. There may be some market for cheap products that are not of quality but not in the markets we serve. GEAR VENDORS are popular with RV's, Trucks, High Performance and Racing applications. These are vehicles which are not retired even when they are very old unless damaged. It just doesn't make sense to put anything less than the best product in vehicles this valuable.
GEAR VENDORS provides overdrive product to racing cars and trucks up to 2000hp and trucks towing heavy RVs up to 25,000lbs gcvw. Whether you are trying to move a couple tons up a steep incline or moving just a couple thousand down the track — the fastest way is with the right gearing. Add the benefits of a final overdrive ratio to reduce engine rpm and increase fuel mileage by typically 20-28% and you have a product that is the single biggest innovation you can bolt to your car or truck. With fuel costs high the overdrive can pay for itself in mileage and engine wear reductions. That makes the driving pleasure of overdrive, and performance improvements free — and then the vehicle is also worth more when/if you ever sell it with the GEAR VENDORS. In the long run it just doesn't cost you anything to own a GEAR VENDORS UNDER/OVERDRIVE™. For an in-depth discussion on which vehicles can expect these mileage gains see our "common questions" section on the web site.
GEAR VENDORS, INC. 1717 North Magnolia Avenue, El Cajon, CA 92020
Toll Free 800-999-9555 • Telephone (619) 562-0060 • Fax (619) 562-1186